Growth and Social Protection - Consortium Outputs

NEW! Working Paper: The Social Protection Policy in Malawi: Processes, Politics and Challenges

NEW! Working Paper: Reclaiming Policy Space: Lessons from Malawi's 2005/2006 Fertilizer Subsidy Programme

NEW! Discussion Paper: Rethinking Agricultural Input Subsidies in Poor Rural Economies. See also the associated Powerpoint presentation

NEW! Working Paper: Using Social Protection Policies to Reduce Vulnerability and Promote Economic Growth in Kenya

Briefing: Promoting Agriculture for Social Protection or Social Protection for Agriculture?

Highlighting some pertinent issues and debates for agriculture that are emerging from the social protection agenda, and vice versa, this Briefing look for synergies between welfare-promoting and growth-promoting forms of social protection and agricultural development. A two-part briefing from Andrew Dorward, Rachel Sabates Wheeler, Ian MacAuslan, Chris Penrose Buckley, Jonathan Kydd, and Ephraim Chirwa.

part 1: Concepts and Frameworks

part 2: Policy Approaches & Emerging Questions

The full paper on which these briefings are based is available here.

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In the countries on which the consortium work will focus initially - Kenya, Ethiopia and Malawi - the majority of the poor and vulnerable are rural. Because agriculture is the core activity of rural areas it is generally assumed that agricultural growth and the local linkages it stimulates will reduce poverty and vulnerability. But the strength of the pro-poor linkages will vary with the patterns of agricultural growth, with respect to dimensions such as the degree of concentration of land and of the growth activity; its labour intensity; the magnitude of local linkages; the year-on-year variability of production and prices; and the extent to which a particular pattern of agricultural growth may turn the terms of trade for staple food against rural customers. Furthermore there may be a group of ultra-poor people with very high dependency ratios (such as HIV/AIDS affected) who are not likely to benefit from agricultural growth but who could suffer from rising food prices.

There are good grounds for thinking that agricultural growth will be generally pro-poor, but it must be acknowledged that there will be some who remain unaffected or are even losers from certain patterns of agricultural growth. These considerations suggest that policy and institutional frameworks should be reformed to promote patterns of agricultural growth which are likely to be pro-poor. But these policies, entailing for example, semi-commercial systems for financing inputs and farm operations; some price intervention for stabilisation and for ensuring the viability of certain crops technology research; and technology extension may only initially be of assistance to a minority of farmers. How is the poverty and vulnerability of the rural poor going to be tackled while we are waiting for agricultural growth to 'ride to the rescue'?

There are a range of policies which have been used to assist the poor and vulnerable, coming under terminology which includes: humanitarian relief; safety nets; and social assistance. Some of these have little or no impact on agriculture, but there are a subset which do including: free or subsidised food distribution (which may, but does not automatically, reduce demand and prices for locally produced food); food for work (which potentially helps agriculture by improving infrastructure); cash handouts; food for assets (or fertiliser, which may improve the agricultural production of the poor); and policies of preventing increases in food prices. Thus some social protection policy may involve tradeoffs with longer-term agricultural development policies.

Jonathan Kydd from Imperial College London, will be leading this consortium theme which will:

review the literature ensuring that HIV/AIDS issues are fully recognised as this has driven the emergence of a new category of highly labour constrained poor

examine the issues in the context of Kenya, Malawi and Ethiopia (the initial focus countries for the Consortium
on the basis of this work, seek to explain to the policy community: where these tradeoffs may arise and give indications as to their magnitude (and therefore the extent to which agricultural development and social assistance specialists should take each other's concerns into account)
suggest solutions which minimise the trade-offs and get the two concerns working together in productivity enhancing safety nets.

Growth and Social Protection - Consortium Outputs

Further Reading